One of things I like about a few of the music sites I visit (I'm not all that crazy about calling them "blogs", for some reason, I think the word cheapens them), is that aside from the great music, thoughts, memories and so on, the authors sometimes mention what they might be listening to, reading or watching. Now I think in my chaotic way I do indicate some of the many things I'm listening to with each post, but I very rarely talk about books or movies. To be honest with you, I used to read a lot, and I'm not just talking about for college, newspapers and magazines and what not. Varied stuff, both fiction and non-fiction. Ever since my 4th grade teacher read the entire Narnia series to the class (of course at that age I didn't catch the symbolism or what C.S. Lewis was all about), it has been an on and off passion. These days I don't make a lot of time for reading and maybe that will change. 99% of the reading I do is online. So, not too long ago I read a great book, pictured to the left. I'm not really too proficient at hyping things, as I'm sure the regular readers can tell, or for that matter writing an interesting review. I will say that the main character ends up isolated, surrounded by, obsessed with, and perhaps joining the ranks of "losers". I could identify with the character on many levels, both today and in the past. There is also this good versus evil struggle that I think just about anyone can relate to. Written by a guy who mostly writes science/fantasy type stuff (which I dig), but this is a nice departure. Try it out if reading is your thing.
Now movies are a passion that both my wife and I share. Mostly ones that are filled with violence, horror, fear, brutality and gore. Action and well done special effects is a plus as well. I suppose that makes me insensitive. Maybe if I had grown up in some place like Iraq where people were getting blown up all the time I might think differently. Plus, let's face it, it's fiction. We are big fans of the "Saw" movies, although they are starting to stretch it with these sequels. Excellent gore, intricate story and a sophisticated killer (although he never actually kills anyone, they end up killing themselves). What makes that series interesting as well, is that it isn't a bunch of innocent college kids getting knocked of, rather it's people that have something to answer for. This would be place to discuss the truly dispicable nature of Hollywood, from the producers, to the directors to the actors, the whole rotten industry really. Gluttonous hordes, the whole lot of them. Just off the top of my head, is the practice of taming down movies to go from an R to a PG-13 rating, so they can sell more tickets. In my opinion, creatvity and consumerism don't mix well. Speaking of gore, probably one of the best gore movies I've seen is not in the horror genre at all and that's (in the same way as Saving Private Ryan, but much more so) the last Rambo. But what I wanted to recommend, that I had recently seen, was two French horror movies. The first, and in my opinion, the better of the two is Martyrs. They are both pretty bloody, violent and tragic, but Martyrs has a very serious story, with one of the best ending twists in these kinds of movies I have ever seen. Now Inside or A l'interieur, really blew me away and for the first time my wife said that she didn't want to watch the movie again, because of the level of brutality. I'm not into some of the more extreme, previously banned, underground, carnage for the sake of carnage type movies (there is a fine line), but these two are more than that and are well worth it.The other day I was in a Johnny Cash mood and I have a stack of singles I picked up by him at an antique store a while back. They were dirt cheap and some of them I hadn't listened to yet. These days when I put something on the turntable I usually digitize it. This one kind of has that mid 70's country sound (go figure, it was released in 1974), but it's in a way, that only Cash could do. On top of that, the first tune was written by Kris Kristofferson, and that dude has a way with words, plus the title is just something I am familiar with. Saw Kris in concert up in Humboldt at the place that used to be next to the Brewery in the early 90's and he puts on a mean show. Brave man too, he had some of the more right wing drunk rednecks booing with his rants in between songs.
Just got in from having a smoke outside. This not smoking in the house thing was mandated by the landlord and for odor reasons, even though she smokes as well, applauded by the old lady, but for a die hard smoker like myself, (and yes I know that smoking will lead to a hard death, you don't need to tax the shit out of my tobacco to pay for commercials informing me of that) it's the pits. -4 degrees outside, without the wind chill and breathing in tobacco smoke along with frigid air, makes me cough so hard, I think I cracked a rib it hurts so bad, seriously. Isn't it charming to hear a recovering alcoholic talk about his pathetic addiction to smoking? Anyway...
Got this one not too long ago because I recognized two of the bands on the comp, Monster X and Devoid Of Faith. By the way, you can catch Devoid of Faith's guitar player Nate, on his awesome site, True Punk Metal. Always something good going on over there. There was another comp 7" by the same name (what do you know?), Albany Style Hardcore that this must certainly be a follow up to, at least in theme, released 11 years earlier. What tripped me out a little bit on this one was that it wasn't those two bands that were the highlight for me, even though those tracks are well worth listening to, it was the stuff by Police Line and By The Throat that had me on the edge of my seat. No pussy New Wave, Mod, Art Fag, Techno, Dance stuff here :-) (like the stuff I have been sharing), this shit is in your face pounding hard. If I had to pick one tune for you to listen to, it would be Police Line's, "Elite Few".
